Amazing Service from the AA - For those with smaller boats

[Bigplumbs]

So we set off for home having attended the annual South West Sports boat Rally in Brixham (Tor bay) and the airshow after an amazing 10 days of boating.

About 2.5 hours into what should have been a 6-7 hour journey I heard a noise from the trailer so pulled over as soon as I could. Felt the bearings and the right one was cool but the left one was incredibly hot

I was not in a good position on the road to change a bearing even if I had a set which I did not (note to self) So I called the AA. They responded quite quickly with a van to assess the situation and he quickly summoned a recovery lorry which did take a while to arrive (4 hours from originally stopping) who did the first leg of the journey to Reading services where he met another lorry who delivered the boat home. Whole journey ended up taking 14 hours but the boat is now home in one piece as are we. I was very impressed with the AA staff they were courteous, fun and very helpful and went beyond what you might expect to get us home safe.

If you are not a member I highly reccomend joining. Remember their was nothing wrong with our car it was the boat trailer but with Relay that is all covered. I think I have had very good value here from my membership. It was a 230 mile recovery



Dennis

 

[Bigplumbs]

Here the boat is being offloaded at home

 

[mlines]

Think I would prefer a service that takes you all the way such as Britannia Rescue rather than the relay method.

 

[Bigplumbs]

Think I would prefer a service that takes you all the way such as Britannia Rescue rather than the relay method.

The AA will do all the way but the drivers are HGV1 So on Tacho and it is an hours thing. When we got to the relay point the 2nd lorry was ready and waiting. Transfer only took about 20 mins. No issues at all.

 

[stelican]

looking at the video the grease appears to have completely melted which is caused by seized cables binding the brake shoes to the hubs

 

[Bigplumbs]

looking at the video the grease appears to have completely melted which is caused by seized cables binding the brake shoes to the hubs

Brake cables were ok. No matter either way I have a new Axle on its way for £380 and I will referb this one as a spare...….. Don't you just love salt water

Dennis

 

[TheOrs]

Good to hear.

I got completely the opposite service from the RAC. When I signed up they promised by boat trailer would be covered. When I broke down late at night, they said it wasn't & wouldn't even take the time to give me details of a local recovery firm. (this was about twenty years ago).

 

[ashtead]

For those interested in AA services also worth looking at whether it's included as part of a value added bank account package along with travel insurance etc. I had a battery problem and called and very helpful AA man did a full test on the state of my battery after he got me started all via bank account cover. Suspect it might not cover trailers but a useful service to look at if you are paying out for AA ,RAC, Green flag or the LV Britannia etc.

 

[dpb]

Worth noting that the recovery providers have maximum size limits on trailers, some say 7m long, some 8m, some are a bit vague as to what happens if over size.
As we are around 8.5m over all (including boat overhang), for longer journeys we carry onboard all we need to deal with punctures and bearing failures ourselves, as well as making sure the trailer is very well maintained in the first place.
Also have been considering ways of monitoring hub temp whilst under way as raising temp would give warning of impending failure.
At the moment we carry an infra red gauge which I use to check the hub caps at each stop but constant monitoring would be better.
There are plenty of pressure and tyre monitoring kits on ebay that you screw onto the tyre valves, and the prices have dropped alot since they first came about. but wether they would pick up temp rise from the hub I dont know. I think you could drill out the hub caps to fit the monitor to it but it might be hard to fit the hub cap on without damaging the fitted sensor....thats as far as I have got on that one.

 

[Assassin]

Yes they would but only in the form of increased tyre pressures and the heat would be really excessive to do that.

Issues arise from the fact that tyres naturally heat up in use and their pressures become raised, the difficulty is differentiating between natural heat and raised tyre pressures and raised tyre pressures from a faulty bearing.

 

[kennyh]

I learned the hard way many years ago when trailering - carry a complete set of bearings when towing a boat; along with a spare wheel.

It’s surprising to see how many boats are left stranded by the side of the road due to a tyre or wheel failure around Loch Lomond. In the summer you’ll regularly see dumped boats (with a wheel missing) at the side of the road.

 

[lenten]

Good to hear.

I got completely the opposite service from the RAC. When I signed up they promised by boat trailer would be covered. When I broke down late at night, they said it wasn't & wouldn't even take the time to give me details of a local recovery firm. (this was about twenty years ago).

---------had exactly the same with rac ------seems they don t do boat trailers

 

[Bigplumbs]

I learned the hard way many years ago when trailering - carry a complete set of bearings when towing a boat; along with a spare wheel.

It’s surprising to see how many boats are left stranded by the side of the road due to a tyre or wheel failure around Loch Lomond. In the summer you’ll regularly see dumped boats (with a wheel missing) at the side of the road.

Carrying a set of bearings is not a bad Idea but as I stood by the side of the Road waiting for the AA in a layby I did not feel very safe. I pondered would I want to change a set of bearings here. The answer was no better to let the AA take the strain. Many road side locations are like this sadly

 

[chillee]

Worth noting that the recovery providers have maximum size limits on trailers, some say 7m long, some 8m, some are a bit vague as to what happens if over size.
.

+1 to this on variations to length.. Britannia were the best value I could find for European cover that included full recovery for boat back to the UK. I can't recall the length they said they covered now, but it was I think 7.5 or 8m.

 

[Scubadoo]

Many years ago I was caught not by bearing failure but the tail board lighting, I hadn't realised the wire to the car socket had dropped enough so when I pulled into a garage with a fairly steep incline from the main road the cable was cut in half by the trailer support. So make sure wire is secure and carry spare wiring etc. The other time tail board fixing sheared off due to a large pot hole, so recommend reinforcing plastic with an aluminium plate.